President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address prodded Congress to act on issues like immigration and economic inequality, with a warning that he won’t hesitate to act unilaterally if lawmakers drag their feet.

But the real audience wasn’t the lawmakers in the chamber. The president was trying to sell his policies and his leadership to tens of millions of people watching at home.

With that rare, outsized audience comes the temptation for the president to put some spin on his arguments that might not otherwise fly or gain traction in Washington.

Here’s POLITICO’s analysis of some of the key parts of Obama’s speech, and where the truth may have been shaped or even stretched in the process:

Obamacare numbers game

Obama: “More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage.”

Technically, Obama’s right — those are the latest figures released by the Obama administration. In the context of the speech, though, a casual listener could get the impression that all those people got health coverage for the first time because of Obamacare — and that’s not certain yet.

There’s no question that enrollment has been going better since the launch. Last week, the administration announced that 3 million people have signed up for private coverage through Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. That’s a huge leap over the 106,000 who had signed up in October, the first month of enrollment.

The catch, though, is that it’s not yet clear how many of those people were uninsured — and gained coverage for the first time — and how many were just replacing old insurance, such as policies that were canceled because they didn’t meet Obamacare standards.

There were probably some uninsured people among the 6 million Americans who have gained coverage under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program since October — but again, it’s not clear how many of those signups can be directly linked to Obamacare.

Obama: “And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is.”

That depends on which business leaders you talk to.

The White House cited a A.T. Kearney survey as the basis for Obama’s remark, noting the United States indeed landed at the top of the global consulting firm’s list for expected foreign direct investment based on the responses from 300 executives in 28 countries.

But the United States doesn’t fare anywhere near as well in other prominent business analysis.

Forbes’ annual report on the best country to do business put Ireland at the top, while the U.S. landed at No. 14. It fell thanks to Washington-driven business regulations, “excessive tax burden” and the Federal Reserve’s “easy-money program, which has distorted prices and risked long-term inflation.”

India, Brazil, China and Canada all outpaced the United States in an Ernst & Young survey released in November of 1,600 senior executives from more than 70 countries. And the Milken Institute – which measures countries on 67 variables, including economic fundamentals and regulations — put the United States at No. 22, behind Hong Kong (No. 1), Estonia (No.11) and France (No. 21).

Obama: “Taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth.”

It’s certainly been a good stretch for the stars and stripes. But the party may be over.

The U.S. energy sector’s carbon dioxide emissions actually ticked up 2 percent last year, the country’s first annual increase in three years, according to new Energy Information Administration data released earlier this month.

And the reason for the ups and downs had little to do with the policies Obama put in place and much to do with industry trends tied to the good old marketplace of supply and demand.

Just look at the EIA report: Natural gas prices had hit a historic low in 2012, part of a longer trend that led to the major emission cuts Obama took credit for. But those prices also started to tick back up, pushing electric utilities to burn more coal – and in turn pollute more.

Who benefits from minimum wage boost?

Obama: “I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour — because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you should not have to live in poverty.”

Obama’s move — part of his challenge to Congress to boost the minimum wage for most workers to $10.10 — clearly fits with his drive to act where he can and press lawmakers to do more. But his ability to act unilaterally on this point is very limited as most employees of federal contractors make well over $10 an hour.

White House officials say a few hundred thousand employees could get a wage boost from the president’s action. But it would apply only to future contracts, so would likely take several years to have even that impact.

Across the United States, according to the Labor Department, 3.6 million workers currently make minimum wage or below. And millions who make a little more would get a boost if the wage went up to $10.10 — though some might lose their jobs or hours if employers respond to the higher wage costs by trying to use less labor.

Iran: trust but verify

Obama: “American diplomacy, backed by pressure…has halted the progress of Iran’s nuclear program…. As we gather here tonight, Iran has begun to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium. It is not installing advanced centrifuges. Unprecedented inspections help the world verify, every day, that Iran is not building a bomb.”

There’s considerable disagreement among experts and between the United States and countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia about just how tough the six-month interim nuclear deal that went into effect with Iran last week really is.

Obama is right that the international community is getting a level of access to Iran’s existing nuclear facilities it has never had before, including daily visits by the IAEA. From there, though, the situation gets more murky.

While Iran is reducing its stockpile of 20 percent-enriched uranium and won’t build more advanced centrifuges while the deal is in place, it’s program isn’t completely “halted,” as Obama suggested.

Stocks of lower-enriched uranium may actually grow in coming months before they are supposed to come down to current levels again by the end of the six month period.

And although Iran is required to shut down its advanced centrifuges, it doesn’t have to get rid of any of them. In addition, Iran can build an unlimited number less sophisticated centrifuges even while the temporary deal is in place.

So, while most analysts view the deal as modestly setting back Iran’s drive towards a nuclear weapon, the country doesn’t have to stop all work on its nuclear infrastructure while the United States, Iran and other countries try to negotiate a permanent pact.

Republican rebuttal

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: “Last month, more Americans stopped looking for a job than found one.”

The GOP fired three separate rebuttal missives at Obama, but the speeches from Rodgers (Wash.) and Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.) were heavy on personal narratives and partisan rhetoric that don’t lend themselves to obvious fact checks.

Still, Rodgers’ jab at Obama over the economy, as part of the official GOP response, did overlook several key points.

To start, that shrinking labor force she harps on is largely due to a wave of retiring baby boomers — not exactly a development Obama has any role in.

And while the latest financial numbers are far from rosy, the White House can hang its hat on the fact that the December 2013 unemployment rate is the lowest in Obama’s presidency: 6.7 percent, down from a 10 percent peak in October 2009. Also, the U.S. economy is up 3.2 million jobs since Obama took office.